


bombs over manhattan

by constellatory



Category: Marvel, Young Avengers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-07 00:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellatory/pseuds/constellatory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Civil War, pre-Children's Crusade. There's a special kind of terror reserved only for that moment when you see someone you love go down, and you're not sure they're getting back up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	bombs over manhattan

**Author's Note:**

> From Tumblr. Not Homestuck, this time. I love Billy and Teddy as a pairing, because they are very sweet. I guess this qualifies as hurt/comfort? Explosions, fights, it's all good.

He’s not sure how it happened. Not sure how he got caught with his guard down, honestly. It went off right next to his ear - a fucking _grenade_. Only incredible reflexes, a last minute instantaneous save, a wish harshly whispered on half a breath, kept him from getting his head blown clean off. Still, next thing he knows he’s on the ground. All he hears is a high pitched ring. Almost like a keen, like pain. It is pain. It is incredibly painful.  
  
He tries to speak and finds his throat choked up with blood. _IwantittobefineIwantittobefine_ but that doesn’t even make sense. Won’t work as a spell. It hurts, god, is it painful. He can’t hear anything. He tries to lift a hand to his ear and finds his arm won’t respond.  
  
 _Iwantmyarmtomove_.  
  
Choking, coughing, trying to breathe, needing to move, all the signals getting confused in his mind and nothing gets done despite the thudding urgency. Teddy’s there, suddenly. Billy can’t hear him, can barely see his face. There’s hands on him, lifting him up, incredibly steady, though the boy behind them shakes. He’s held close, a pressing warmth, distantly comforting through the daze. He feels Teddy’s cries more than he hears them, knows it’s his fault, feels bad, but can’t move to do a damn thing about it. In the background there is a hum, a snap. Eli is barking something, he thinks, maybe. Probably. Kate is barking right back. Cassie covers them as best she can, but it’s not easy by herself. _Teddy_ , she tries to say. It’s Vision she gets, because Vision is always there. They manage.  
  
Teddy doesn’t hear them. Chooses not to hear them. Maybe. Probably. Billy can’t tell. Billy can’t _hear_. He feels sharpness in his ear, restraints around his wrists, cold, and shivers. Whispers something, tiny, that only Teddy can hear.  
  
 _IwanthimtostopIwanthimtostopIwanthimtostop_.  
  
There is a roar, insensate with rage. Billy winces, pulls in a long, shuddering wet breath, and the sound stops. The warmth doesn’t leave. If anything, he is held closer. There’s another voice, jabbering too fast to hear, _ishegoingtobealrighthatidiothwhatdidhedothistimeweneedtohirehimanannyorsomething_ and then it’s gone. There is a blank space of time, perfectly empty, in which he is aware of nothing. Then suddenly, bursting into the close-pressing darkness, another explosion, a cry of _fall back! I SAID FALL BACK!_  
  
“Oh,” says Billy. He opens his eyes again, staring straight upwards into Teddy’s upside-down, tear-streaked face. “… oh.”  
  
He’ll find out later both his eardrums were ruptured by the blast shock wave. All he knows right now is that there’s this constant aural numbness, like a thrum, or a lack thereof. He can hear now, sort of, just a little tiny bit.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, voice cracking with the effort. One arm goes back, up, around Teddy’s neck, and the other boy squeezes his eyes shut and rubs an arm roughly across his face.  
  
“Don’t start with me, Kaplan.” He sounds angry, but he’s really not, dissolving into terrified relief just seconds later and doubling over, pulling the stupid headband out of the way and pressing his forehead to Billy’s.  
  
There’s another call, _Billy!_ , deeply alarmed, and it’s Cassie again, watching them with big scared blue eyes. Teddy realizes what the scene must look like before Billy does, and moves, waves an impatient arm, but Eli isn’t having any of it. _Can you move, can you fight, do you need to get out of here, what. Make a call._  
  
Billy’s memory of events, later, is really poor. He’s told he has a concussion, too, that’s how close he was to the blast. He’s lucky to be alive, says the doctor, with a perfect blend of chiseled-jaw sternness and careful concern. He ends up shrugging it off, mostly because he’s used to it by now, though he tries to keep Teddy from hearing those words. They tell him, after, that Teddy tried to pick him up and cart him off the field, get him to the sidelines, and he wasn’t having any of it. Insisted on staying. Did— did _something_ , and every last explosive just disappeared completely. No one has any idea where they went, what happened to them, if they went off in some remote part of the world or galaxy or universe or just disappeared from existence. Kate asks what happened later and Tommy says, _Billy. Billy happened._  
  
The first he really knows of anything from the moment that grenade came within three inches of his face is waking up in a hospital bed.  Teddy’s asleep in a chair beside him, holding one of Billy’s hands clasped in both of his own. A moment’s foggy observation makes him realize, with a start, that Teddy hasn’t changed. He’s still got dirt on him from the fight. _How long have I been out?_  
  
Thirty hours, Tommy tells him with this perfectly blank face, leaning against a wall like he hasn’t got a care in the fucking world, but the tenseness in his shoulders tells another story. Everyone in the room watches with too serious eyes. They’re all cleaned up. Somewhat, if not completely, rested. Vision comments, in that soft, placating electric tone of his, that this is the first time anyone has seen Teddy sleep since the fight.  
  
Visiting hours eventually end, Cap walking in with sad and serious eyes to say everybody out. Billy starts to beg, stops, sits there with his mouth open and a desperate look on his face. Cap looks between them, Teddy still asleep and Billy _aching_ , and simply turns, waves over his shoulder, and walks out of the room. He pretends not to hear Billy’s whisper of _thanks, Cap._  
  
Teddy wasn’t asleep. He proves as much about a minute later when Billy looks down, finding unblinking blue eyes staring into his own. _Boring_. Hoping. Searching. _Finding_ , with intense relief.  
  
Teddy murmurs something he can’t hear. Billy starts to protest, something about 50% hearing loss, and doesn’t finish the thought when he finds lips pressed to his, silent and insistent. They’re badly chapped from lots of biting, and Billy thinks he can taste the metallic tang of blood. He makes a noise, can’t hear it but feels it in his own chest, and Teddy shuts him up with a hand in his hair.  
  
Fatigue catches up with him quickly. It’s the concussion, his logical mind says, but he doesn’t want to fall asleep. He’s scared the life out of Teddy enough for one day. One lifetime. A hundred thousand lifetimes, maybe. Probably. Teddy’s response is to _shhh_ him, quietly, and crawl into bed beside him.  
  
They fall asleep like that, quiet, close, not quite tangled up because Teddy is too careful for that, careful of the IV and the heart monitor. Teddy’s too careful to wake him up in the morning, too, or maybe it’s just that he’s too exhausted to feel it when Billy stirs. He feels better, marginally, still can’t hear well but enough so that he doesn’t feel panicky over it. Instead he breathes, stares at the faint grey-gold light filtering in, painting the ceiling, and thinks. Makes a decision, eventually, and pushes himself slowly up.  
  
 _IwanttoseehimsmileIwanttoseehimsmile_. (Whispers, just words, not a spell. Just loud enough to be heard, with a hand carding through Teddy’s hair.)  
  
When Teddy opens his eyes, sees Billy sitting up, pale and a little weak but alive, he does just that.


End file.
